Paper Crafting

A few weeks back, my friend Annie emailed to let me know that she had begun a new quarterly magazine, Alphabet Glue, that is centered around children and reading. I have always loved Annie’s work with creating small paper books, and I was so excited to see the incredible job that she had done with this new publication. I immediately sent an order to Kinkos and had the magazine coiled and bound for each of the boys, and surprised them during the next morning’s lessons.

Alphabet Glue is a simple but effective way to interact with our children in regards to reading, storytelling, and a love of literature. In this edition, Annie fills the pages with such wonderful treats as Do-It-Yourself Library Catalog Cards, to a library scavenger hunt, felt bracelet books and paper story character houses.

There is nothing that I enjoy more than to see my kids in love with books, and I can’t say enough about Annie’s ability to bring a sense of fun and adventure to the pages of Alphabet Glue. In her own words, here is a bit about this publication

Alphabet Glue is a quarterly downloadable magazine for families who love books! Filled with activities, printables, projects and plenty of inspiration, Alphabet Glue was created in hopes of helping more families to incorporate creativity, imagination and all things literary into their everyday routines. The stories that we write, tell, hear and share are part of what makes us who we are. Through story we process our thoughts, our experiences and sometimes share our dreams. This is especially true for children, who so often incorporate stories into their play, their writing and their drawing. Alphabet Glue is a celebration of the way that stories intersect with our daily lives

Volume One of Alphabet Glue contains twenty-eight pages of projects, activities and printables. You can play librarian, make a book, find out a bit more about your local library, and make a list of favorite new books. There is a silly story making game, paper folding and even a little seed scattering. There is a bit of the improbable, the whimsical, and the invented in every activity, and I hope that you will enjoy this as much as I do.

Annie has been kind enough to give away ten copies of Alphabet Glue to Shivaya readers. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment here and we will draw the winners on Friday.

As a special treat, Annie has a copy of her Library List available as a free download.

When I spoke yesterday about not being able to get my rhythm going, the one thing that I realized is that it is our external rhythm that we have struggled with, rather than our internal one. The boys and I seem content inside the walls of our home, it is when we attempt to join “reality” that we sometimes lose our footing. It has been 34 days since Landon’s arrival, and we have managed to stay mainly within our family unit, and have slowly made the transition from two children to three.

Our days have looked quiet, but full of small projects that we can do together while holding a baby or while the wee one is napping. Friendship bracelets and dream catchers have been made, poems have been created and about a million yards of i-cord now lay about the house. Nothing major has been conceived or completed, just little bits of fun here and there to keep the days flowing.

After the holidays, the boys and I began lessons on poetry, and they have sat each day and come up with a short verse. I love watching children create poetry, it is so much fun to see how they interpret the idea of a poem. We were recently introduced to this book, and it has been a wonderful resource for the boys to see how almost anything that they can think of can become a unique poem.

Elwood had seen the book that I had made around the holidays out of a few Artful Blog clippings and some left over scrap book paper, and they decided that they had to do the same to their own boring school composition books that they were using for their poetry. It is a very simple craft that can be done in about an hour, and can turn any ordinary composition or sketch book into a pretty space to create in.

You will need the book of your choosing, scrap paper or fabric, glue, scissors (I used pinking shears for a more designed effect), and a paint brush or foam brush.

Begin by cutting out your paper or fabric in shapes of your chosen size. These will most likely be cut down even further in the process of making the book, but it is good to start a little bit bigger.

Begin by layering one piece of paper/fabric at a time onto the book, letting kids know that it is okay to place the pieces wherever they see fit, and encouraging them to layer each new piece onto the last. Don’t worry if the paper extends beyond the edge of the book, that will be easily remedied once the project is dry.

Once all of the paper has been placed, allow the book to dry for about an hour, and then take your scissors and trim the edges of the book, giving it a finished look.

Journals, poetry, school books, the possibilities are endless for what these can be used for. After we were done making these last week, Jacob went around the house and found every last blank book he could find and turned them each into scrappy journals. I have to agree with him that they just make doing a book report or writing poetry a little bit more fun.

My name is Heather and I am mama to four kiddos ranging in age from 10 to 1 year. We are a gluten free family navigating our way through home schooling, parenting, and an attempt at quiet simple living. I am so glad that you are here, and look forward to connecting with each of you.